Meaning-Making Part 3
March 6, 2025
Oscar Ichazo
Meaning-Making Part 3
Many things in our lives have tremendous meaning, like times with family and loved ones. And meaningful work is fantastic and rewarding. Being part of something greater than ourselves is another meaningful endeavor. Our minds, bodies, and hearts embrace our meaningful things, and we cherish most, the ones that are charged with love, happiness, and fulfillment.
One meaningful time for me was when I built a treehouse for our children, Ben and Lauren. As little people, they were thrilled to be involved in the project. I used the tools my father had given me over the years, and finally, amid the limbs of a huge pecan tree, the treehouse materialized, complete with a ladder, flag, zip line, and bell. To celebrate the banner day, all four of us, including our cocker spaniel Monty, spent a blissful night in the little house high above the backyard. That memorable night was a wonder-full night. When I relive it right now, I well up, because love and bliss are all rolled into one. It was full of wonder and meaning.
Meaningful times such as these are what spiritual teacher Oscar Ichazo (1931-2020) calls “Absolute Mind” — a state of being that requires no thought, conceptualization, or strategizing. It is even beyond emotion, where only quiet and emptiness exist without ego chatter; it is the state of pure being. Ichazo gave us the Enneagram of personality, which has taken the world by storm, and he gave us 108 Enneagrams, the Holy Ideas, and an entire system of understanding ourselves and the universe. For him, the Absolute Mind is the highest state of consciousness. The mind we live in on a day-to-day basis is called the Relative Mind, which contains our operational language, chatter, interactions, and strategizing.
But meaningful times are not always pleasant; they can be times of challenge, uncertainty, or despair. Nevertheless, they are meaningful because they make impressions on our souls in some inestimable way. There is a person who holds meaning for me, but my memories of him are not pleasant. He is meaningful because he taught me some things about human nature that, even in my clinical practice, I did not encounter. He procured alcohol for kids and teens in our small town. As you can imagine, we had many difficulties negotiating our relationship with this man because of his behavior and because he was a neighbor, a father, and a member of our church at the time.
Going through the process of forgiving this individual was arduous. He took up space in our Relative Mind for a long time. He directly impacted my son, and for that, Lark and I were wounded beyond repair. We live with that wound today, though forgiveness and dimensions of Absolute Mind take the sting away.
Wonderful times as well as arduous shock points are meaningful because, in their own way, both can take us to greater consciousness. Part of me wishes I never had to contend with the man who sold substances to kids. But as I view life in the rearview mirror, and though the wound is there, I see how the state of being in the Absolute Mind teaches me how to move through such a bitterness to find peace and forgiveness. This makes even an arduous experience meaningful.
Spiritual practice: Reflect on some of the most meaningful times in your life. Describe verbally or in writing a time when you were in Absolute Mind. Why do you think the Absolute Mind is the highest state of consciousness, pure being?
Self-inquiry: What is an unpleasant yet very meaningful time for you? Why is it meaningful?
Dear God,
Bring me to wholeness as I collect and re-collect my most meaningful times. In your name, Amen
